Abstract
In 1969, Simon Wiesenthal, already internationally recognized for his work in the Documentation Center of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime in Vienna, published an autobiographical narrative based on an exceptional encounter between himself and a dying, repentant Nazi soldier. On his deathbed this soldier confessed to Wiesenthal that he had participated in the murder of hundreds of Jews (including children) and asked Wiesenthal—at the time himself a prisoner in a concentration camp in Poland—for his forgiveness. Responding at the time with silence, Wiesenthal confessed nonetheless to being haunted by the dying man’s request, unable to put the matter to rest, both during the period he was interned in the camps as well as afterwards. Convinced of the importance of what he had experienced, he sent the narrative, entitled The Sunflower : A Story of Guilt and Forgiveness, to a number of distinguished figures of public life, including theologians, writers, philosophers, politicians and religious leaders. The published text includes their responses.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Terror and the Roots of Poetics |
Editors | Jeffrey R. Champlin |
Place of Publication | U.S.A. |
Publisher | Atropos |
Pages | 110-138 |
Number of pages | 29 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780985304256 |
Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Keywords
- forgiveness
- Holocaust, 1939-1945
- Wiesenthal, Simon. Sonnenblume
- Wiesenthal, Simon. Sunflower